Climate Change Glossary

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Having trouble understanding the terminology? Have a look down this list of common Climate Change related terms and descriptions:

Additionality

Additionality is when carbon is sequestered as a result of projects that are undertaken outside of normal business activity. If a restoration was going to be done anyway it falls in the category of "business as usual" because the resulting carbon stocks were coming anyway. The simple question is "what would have happened if the project was not done?

Atmosphere

The gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air.

Biodiversity

The diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat or in the world as a whole. A high level of biodiversity is desirable.

Carbon

A naturally abundant, nonmetallic element that occurs in all organic compounds and can be found in all known forms of life.

CO2

Carbon Dioxide. A colourless, odorless gas that is present in the atmosphere when any fuel containing carbon is burned. It is breathed out of mammals lungs during respiration. It is produced by the decay of organic matter and is used by plants in photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide is also used in thousands of other applications and processes. It is the principal greenhouse gas.
Approximately fifty percent of the CO2 emitted today is still in the atmosphere a hundred years from now.

CO2e

Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CDE), is a quantity that describes, for a given mixture of greenhouse gas, the amount of CO2 that would have the same global warming potential when measured over a specified timescale (generally 100 years).

Carbon Footprint

A measure of the amount of CO2 emitted through the use of energy and the combustion of fossil fuels; in the case of an organization, business or enterprise, as part of their everyday operations; in the case of an individual or household, as a part of their daily lives; or during the process of conveying a product or commodity to market. This footprint is often expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide or CO (carbon dioxide equivalent) on a monthly or yearly basis.

Eco

Concerned with living things in relation to their environment.

Ecosystem

A community of organisms together with their physical environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships and including such processes as the flow of energy through trophic levels and the cycling of chemical elements and compounds through living and non living components of the system.

Emission

A substance discharged into the air, especially by an internal combustion engine or a smoke stack. CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere by burning most types of fuels. Emission reduction programs will lower the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere but will not eliminate it.

There are three categories of emissions:

Scope One – GHG emissions that occur from sources that are
owned or controlled by you or your company.
Scope Two – accounts for emissions from the generation of
purchased electricity, steam, heating/cooling purchased by your
or your company.
Scope Three – is a category that accounts for all other indirect
emissions. They are a consequence of activity by you or your
company but occur from sources that are not owned or
controlled by you or your company.

Fossil Fuel

Any combustible organic material such as oil, coal or natural gas, derived from the remains of a previous geologic time and used as fuel.

Greenhouse Eeffect

An atmospheric heating phenomenon, caused by short-wave solar radiation being transmitted inward through the earth’s atmosphere but longer wavelength heat radiation less readily transmitted outward, owing to its absorption by atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and other gases; thus the rising level of carbon dioxide is viewed with concern.

GHG - Greenhouse Gas

Any of the gases whose absorption of solar radiation is responsible for the greenhouse effect including carbon dioxide (approx 78%),
methane, ozone and the fluorocarbons.

Offset

Something that counterbalances, counteracts or compensates for something else; compensating equivalent. Carbon offsets neutralize carbon emissions. Emission reductions (including those gained by using avoidance or reduction based offset programs) still leave behind a residual carbon “footprint” that must be neutralize by using removal offsets.

Overshoot

A term used to express the amount of resources we are using compared to the planet's ability to supply them. (in 2009 we are at an approximate 30% overshoot, and rising)

Peak Oil

The point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. Petroleum products and by-products are in, or used by, almost everything we use.

Photosynthesis

The process in green plants and certain other organisms by which carbohydrates are synthesized from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source. Most forms of photosynthesis release oxygen as a byproduct.

This is the only known way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.